On Tuesday, the Feb. 7, your fellow students, faculty and staff will be heading to our state capitol to rally around the issue of funding for higher education.

This has the potential to be a pivotal event in the campaign to make higher education reasonably affordable for Vermont State College students. The Student Government Association at Johnson State College has banded together with the other state colleges in an effort to show our elected officials and representatives the gravity of our situation.

Regardless of your residency status, most of us seem to be leaving Johnson State College with five-figure debt. As a state institution with the primary objective of providing an education for the citizens of Vermont, a Vermont State College should never have to turn away an eager student pursuing their dreams, simply because they cannot afford tuition.

While the issue here is in part resulting from inefficiencies and misappropriations at the college level; inadequate funding at the state level is the primary dysfunction.

It is for this reason that the entire Student Government Association strongly encourages you to attend the rally for higher education funding at the State House in Montpelier on Feb. 7.

A faculty union on campus has provided the Student Government Association with funding for transportation to the state house. There will be two busses provided that will shuttle students to the State House promptly at 10 a.m. We ask that you arrive several minutes prior to board, and there is a reservation sign-up in the Student Government office in Stearns if you would like to reserve your spot on the bus.

The rally will start outdoors and proceed indoors to give students a chance to interact with our elected officials and representatives. The busses will leave Montpelier around 1:30 p.m, just after the rally’s main events.

At the rally there will be student speakers, as well as some state representatives who wish to talk about the issue. T-shirts will also be provided to everyone so that we can write our debt across our chests; in an effort to show our government officials how much trouble we are all really in.

This event has the potential to enact some real change. I encourage many of you to speak with your professors about why you will be absent from class that day. I also encourage you to make special arrangements (as I have) with the professors of classes you really cannot afford to miss.

Kevin Kirk

Student Government Association Senator